In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick presents a simple, quantitative model for predicting peak performance (PPP). The model is expressed as (IA + AA) × A = PPP, where IA (Inborn Attributes) represents natural ability, AA (Acquired Attributes) represents skills and knowledge, and A (Attitude) is a multiplicative factor. Gubernick walks listeners through a concrete baseball‑player example, comparing two athletes—Phil, who has higher natural talent but lower attitude, and Tom, who has lower natural talent but a superior attitude. The numerical illustration shows how Tom’s higher attitude multiplies his combined IA and AA to produce a higher PPP score than Phil’s, despite Phil’s superior innate ability. The host then extrapolates the formula to business and entrepreneurship, urging leaders to evaluate both talent and attitude when hiring or developing people. He emphasizes that attitude is a multiplier, not an additive component, and that modest improvements in either IA, AA, or especially A can dramatically raise performance. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to apply the formula to assess strengths, weaknesses, and development priorities in their own teams or personal growth plans.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast. We believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I'm going to be discussing a formula to calculate peak performance, a formula to use in order to calculate Peak Performance. Okay, here's the formula that I'm going to explain. IA plus AA times A equals PPP. IA plus AA times A equals PPP. Here's how this works. IA— I want you to write this out— IA, IA stands for Inborn Attributes. Inborn attributes, IA. What does that really mean? It means your natural ability. IA plus AA. AA stands for acquired attributes. What are acquired attributes? This is your— the development of your knowledge. This is the development and enhancement of your skills. So acquired attributes are your skills and your knowledge. Inborn attributes are your natural ability. Those two things summed together times A. A in this particular case stands for attitude. Attitude. Those two things, IA plus AA, the sum of those two times attitude equals PPP, predictable peak performance, predictable peak performance. Let's work through an example. Let's say we have two baseball players, Tom and Phil. Okay, Phil, in this example, Phil has an inborn attribute on a scale of 1 to 10. Phil's an 8. This guy was born genetically, just has what it takes to be an amazing baseball player. Okay, his inborn attributes, 1 to 10, he's an 8. His acquired attributes, 1 to 10, I'm gonna put Phil at a 6. Okay, Phil's at a 6, so he's developed some skills, some knowledge. You add that to his natural abilities, 8 plus 6 in this scenario is a 14. Multiply that by Phil's attitude scale of 1 to 10, Phil's a 5. So what you have here is 8 6 is 14, times 5. Phil's score is a 70 using this, this equation. Now let's look at Tom. Tom's inborn attributes, his natural ability, on a scale of 1 to 10 is actually less than Phil, quite, quite a bit less than Phil. He's a 5. Phil was an 8. Tom's a 5. His acquired attributes In this case are exactly the same as Phil. He's a 6. So Tom's a 5 in IA, a 6 in AA. You add those two together. It's an 11. Now Tom has an amazing attitude because Tom understands that attitude is everything. Todd, Tom, Todd, Tom, uh, is focused every day. He understands what it takes. He has a positive attitude. He knows what it takes to win. He's got a winner's mentality. He's a leader. Tom's an 8 in his attitude. Remember, Phil was a 5. Tom's an 8. So you take Tom's 5 plus his 6, his IA plus his AA, that's 11 times his 8. Tom's score here is an 88 compared to Phil's 70. Now hopefully you're writing this down. What do you notice? You notice that Phil had a much higher, uh, degree of natural ability genetically. You know, his DNA, he is just more gifted naturally than Tom. They both acquired the same amount of skill and knowledge, both given a 6 here. So Phil was a bit more naturally inclined. They both acquired the same amount of knowledge and skill. But those two things sum together. You know, Phil was ahead of Tom, but then attitude comes in and attitude is a multiplier. Tom's an 8, Phil's a 5. Tom's an 88 overall, Phil's a 70. Why? Because the attitude, the mentality, the desire to succeed, the will to get it done, the showing up and staying late, Doing whatever it takes, doing what's important. Now that Tom displayed all those things, put them way ahead of Phil, and therefore his attitude trumped Phil's natural talent. Here's the thing. Tom is going to show up every single day. Tom's predictable peak performance score of 88. He's going to show up every day. You can count on Tom to do his job day in and day out. Phil, on the other, on the other hand, Phil's the type of guy in baseball that's going to occasionally hit a bomb. Phil's going to win some games because he's an extraordinary athlete. Phil's also going to cost you some games because he goes on, goes in a slump, or he strikes out, or he's, he's mentally just not with it, or he's holding out and sitting out of the games, or or he gets injured all too often. That's the difference between these two guys in this example. Superstars have IA, natural ability, and AA, acquired attributes, skills and knowledge. They have these things and then you multiply by attitude, that creates a superstar. So where am I going with this whole thing? We're constantly, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we're evaluating what we call talent, but we're also evaluating attitude. And I think we oftentimes have a tendency maybe to, uh, associate more value with talent and maybe not recognize how far attitude will in fact take you. So I encourage you all as you're evaluating people to bring into your world, or call it what it is, you're evaluating those that are in your world. I encourage you to look at their attributes, their natural abilities, as well as how they've developed skills and knowledge. Add those things together, but also take a look at that attitude, which is multiplicative. Attitude's not just one more thing you add on there. It's not additive. It's multiplicative. You multiply a phenomenal attitude times marginal talent, you will get greater result than amazing talent times a marginal attitude. Where might this apply for you today? How could you leverage this equation to evaluate those you're looking to bring into your world, as well as those that are currently in your world, and assess potentially where weaknesses lie, where strengths lie, double down on those strengths, but also quite possibly, you know, further develop those weaknesses, those areas of deficiency. Maybe someone who has an amazing attitude, you know, is an 8 like Tom. Imagine getting their talent level just up a slight bit, uh, specifically their acquired attributes, because their natural ability is not likely to change. But if you take Tom in this example from a 6 to an 8, Tom is now Hall of Fame material. Phil, on the other hand, we can work on Phil's attitude, no question. People could grow, there's no question about it. Just recognize It might be a little bit more challenging to change Phil's attitude than it is anything else, and he might be a perennial 70, which makes for a good player but doesn't always make for a superstar. Focusing question: how do you apply this formula in your world today? IA plus AA, sum of those two times A equals PPP, predictable peak performance. That's all we have for today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better, so let's get after it.
